In tasks requiring welding, it is sometimes necessary to keep a supply of both oxygen and acetylene fuel nearby. These components are usually stored in bottles, often at high pressure. These oxygen and acetylene bottles are heavy and dangerous. They are difficult to load\move, awkward and wayward if mishandled, and subject to considerable hazard and risk if some type of puncture or leak or mis-use occurs. These devices are sometimes referred to as “torch carts”.
Conventional torch carts used for welding tasks such as cutting steel with oxy/fuel are designed for use in shops, and for transport of bottles only over short distances. if one wants to take bottles or carts to the field such as a construction site, it is typically necessary to load the bottles or carts up on to the back of a truck-bed which requires a strong person, using a dolly or a forklift or a fork-truck. FIG. 1 shows an example of this, in which a pair of heavy bottles are located on a dolly, and chained up to remain in position upon the dolly. FIG. 9 shows a cluster of cables and hoses coming from the bottles, and the confusing way the cables and hoses are mounted to the back end of the dolly.
In the embodiment where a truck-bed is employed, the truck-bed is then more or less occupied and cannot be moved from the job site without interrupting or eliminating the original welding task which required the bottles. FIG. 2 shows an example of this, and also conveys that the welding task cannot be far from the truck. Consequently, an improved mechanism for working with welding bottles is desired.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.